big breaking news. susan rice has another meeting scheduled to start right about now on capitol hill. this team she's meeting with connecticut senator joseph lieberman. earlier rice and aktding cia director mike morrell met with john mccain, lindsey graham and kelly ayotte over what rice knew the in the days after the deadly consulate attack in benghazi. all three claim to be more troubled after this meeting. >> we're significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before that the 16th september explanation about how four americans died by ambassador rice, i think, does not do justice to the reality at the time. >> clearly the impression that was begin, the information begin to the american people was wrong. in fact, ambassador rice said today, absolutely, it was wrong.

>> and within the past hour the white house once again defended ambassador rice. >> focus on some might say obsession made on comments made on sunday shows seems, to me, and to many, to be misplaced. >> and the ambassador herself made this statement only a short time ago. it read in part, quote, i appreciated the opportunity to discuss these issues directly and structurive wi them. the administration remains committed to working closely with congress as we thoroughly investigate the terrorist attack in benghazi. joining me now from washington is nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. as i mentioned, this meeting with senator lieberman set to start between 2:00 and 2:15. he gave an interview on the 25th of november to cnn, and at that time senator lieberman referred to rice as having a distinguished career up until now. he says, i don't know how i feel

about exactly what was said on television that sunday morning. he too in that interview has similar questions that we saw from other three senators. >> reporter: he's the chairman of the senate homeland security committee, so he has particular standing in this because he has from the beginning called for greater investigation about what went on in benghazi. his committee reached out to susan rice and the administration in the early weeks to get to the bottom of this apparent sort of misdirection, whether it was intentional or not is the political fight. they now acknowledge that there wasn't a spontaneous demonstration, and these senators who are critics want to know why was that the public talking point when those in the administration and intelligence community knew early on this was a terror attack? a lot of what they're focused on also is publicly we see about those sunday show appearances, because susan rice was chosen by

the white house to be a spokesperson for administration. they want to know what happened behind the scenes. why were requests for additional security not dealt with in a way that would have perhaps prevented this, if that was even possible. why were warning about past terror threats and smaller scale attacks not factored in how they talked about this. they're really trying to shine a light on this particular example as a way to get more information about those other issues. susan rice is certainly a very public figure in this, and they want to find out if there was something more she knew at the time. had she been briefed more fully and then trying to weigh what her public statements were. everyone agrees in both parties that she did talk about the approved talking points, went a little beyond that on a couple of occasions. they all acknowledge she was given those talking points by the administration. they're trying to get some of the back stories sorted out. very challenging day for her to be sure. >> absolutely. we just heard jay carney said he

believes that there's an obsession with susan rice, which brings me back to the cia director at the time, general david petraeus. are we seeing an urgency to hear from him again, and did we see this same reaction -- you heard lindsey graham and mccain say they're more troubled now. was that the same sentiment after they spoke with general david petraeus? >> they are talking about the intelligence community sort of letting the country down both in understanding what was going on in benghazi before the attack september 11th of this year and how it was handled. there is this big disconnect that the most recent petraeus testimony after he resigned as director, he made it very clear that he believed from almost the immediate aftermath that it was a terror attack, not something that was a result of a demonstration or a spontaneous sort of gathering that went awry. they're trying to sort it out. a lot of what we see is there's a public face on this, and it has become susan rice for quite

some time during the election period as well as this time frame, and that seems to be a where a lot of public focus is, even though they raise criticisms about the intelligence community nor broadly. >> absolutely. kelly, thank you so much. joining me now is former state department middle east officer joel ruben, and molly ball and michael skirmonsih and jimmy williams. you heard kelly o'donnell report that the face of all of this is susan rice, but we know that the intelligence, the talking points, if you will, did not originate from her or the u.n. is it appropriate she's the face of all of this in your opinion? >> thank you, tamron, for having me on. it's unfortunate that dr. rice has become the face of this, because, in fact, she is a highly regarded accomplished civil servant leading our

mission in the united nations. she was put in the spotlight in order to communicate what the intelligence community and administration believed to be the best way to communicate the attack on benghazi. rightly now congress is looking at the question of what went wrong, but the question about whether or not she is personally responsible for it is a bit far-fetched, and it's really going into a point where members of congress are making themselves look silly. they're day in and day outhave different statements. the house sent a letter to house republicans on posing her potential nomination to secretary of state. less than half signed onto it. there's not much appetite for this fight. we saw it in the campaign, and we're not sure where this is heading. it does seem like a losing hand where she ends up in administration. >> mike morrell was there with susan rice. there's this notion that there's an obsession here. it seems as if, especially when it comes to senators mccain,

graham and ayotte, there's a lot of their attention directed to ambassador rice, but not a real hard push when it comes to the intelligence. we heard, i guess, mccain back away a little bit, and you have graham now saying that that consulate should have never been open on the day of the attack, september 11th. even still, the focus heavily is on ambassador rice. is that appropriate, knowing that the talking points originated from the cia? >> well, i think it's interesting that, you know, we sort of woke up this morning thinking that the firestorm over susan rice specifically might be dying down based on things that mccain said on sunday and that others have said. it seemed like he was getting ready to ease off of her, getting ready to give her the benefit of the doubt, getting ready to broaden the focus to the president. something about this meeting they had seems to have really inflamed senator mccain, senator graham, senator ayotte where even though susan rice initiated

this meeting and it did seem there was a possibility of smoothing over the tensions, it had the opposite effect and the ambassador may now be feeling like she's caught in an impossible position. if she tries to subdue these fires, she provokes them anew. if she doesn't do anything, she's criticized for that, too. >> was it an impossible mission as molly -- she didn't categorize it as athat, but it certainly comes off that way, especially when powerful senators say, oh, boy, we have more questions than welch answers this i'm around without even touching a bit of their concern, this broad-based we are now more worries. that is quite ominous if you're a person watching from home. what do they mean by na? >> i think molly makes a great point, and i would like to know what was said behind closed doors. of course, that's the unknown. we don't know what went on today on capitol hill. that's an important ingredient. you put your finger on something a moment ago. here's the disconnect, and this

is what makes me suspicious. you don't hear the strong language. you don't hear the harsh intonation of those senators when speaking of the cia. if the facts are that ambassador rice was reading from talking points prepared by the cia and that that data was false, then where's the condemnation of the intelligence operation, and where are people speculating that the cia lied? i've never heard anybody say, maybe the cia lied in the benghazi case, and yet they're so loose with their language when it comes to ambassador rice. based on the facts as we know them, that's not fair. >> that adds to the suspicion for people that support ambassador rice or admire her when you have personal attacks questioning her intelligence, whether she's bright enough to do her job or competent enough. but those same questions respectfully so, and i know he's a general and he was a great general and is one, but they were not said about the former

cia director, general david petraeus, who was in a crisis, a personal crisis that he knew was going down. the rest of us did not at the time of this aattack. >> it deledge mizing what could be an important inquiry, because four americans are dead including a u.s. ambassador. we want to know what went wrong so it's not repeated. if this takes on the perception as it is of a partisan witch had you not -- witch-hunt we won't get the answers we deserve. >> the point about those who saw as a partisan witch-hunt. we showed video of senator joseph lieberman. if he does not show the same contempt as the republican senators this morning, it does certainly leave them out there without this trio or bipartisan trio that we've seen or quartet. in his interview with cnn, i'm going to read a portion of what he said when asked about susan rice. she had a distinguished career

up until now. secondly, i don't know if i feel i know exactly what she was told before she went on tv that sunday. i think we ought to find out before we decide on whether she's a good or bad public servant. that's what he said on the 25th. >> but here's the problem. the senate's already voted on her once to be the ambassador of the united nations. it's not like -- i don't think anybody thinks she's not qualified to do the job. >> i don't think you can say that. john mccain was on tape questioning whether she was qualified. there's one, a powerful senator. >> he thought she was qualified before. i'm not sure what's changed. here's the problem with the entire debate. everyone is focuses, at least these three senators focus on susan rice. none focus on their former colleague, which is former senator hillary clinton. she's the secretary of state. she's the sitting secretary of state. she's leaving. guess what? the embassy security was directly under her purview and staff's purview. i'm not suggesting she did

anything wrong. i'm suggesting they're barking up the wrong tree. the problem with these three senators, kelly ayotte, lindsey graham and john mccain, is they're barking up the wrong tree here. >> what is the tree that's appropriate if we continue with that metaphor? >> the sitting secretary of state. if they're concerned about what happened in benghazi with our security, with our ambassador and the three other people that were killed, they ought to ask the sitting secretary of state to come to the congress, which is their right, by the way. it is their right as an equal branch of government to bring in a secretary of state and ask them to testify as to what happened. they won't do it because they're too scared of her. they don't have the guts to do. instead they go after ambassador rice. >> joel, you work with the state department in the middle east office. what do you have to say regarding they're too afraid to bring in the secretary of state? >> the secretary of state is formidable. she's already publicly taken responsibility for what happened, as has the president. they're moving forward properly with investigations about this.

dr. rice did not have authority over the embassy, over the mission in benghazi. she was doing the work of ensuring that the public understood the best information that the administration had. they are actually, as jimmy said, going after the wrong person, but they shouldn't be going after anybody right now except the facts. that's what is starting to be missed in this, and we need a public airing of real, legitimate discussion. we don't need it so personalized. we lose sight of the fact there was a breakdown in security and that needs to be rectified. >> that's the legitimate question out there, molly. no one wants to just brush this, i hope, under the rug. you have people na lost loved ones, and they sdefr the answers. we know that, and we would feel the exact same way. is it legitimate to ask why was the ambassador put out on those sunday morning shows as opposed to someone else? >> yeah. i mean, the reason this is about

susan rice personally is that she might be nominated for secretary of state. that, out of all these different issues, is something the senate has the final say on. so these senators, i think, truly believe and you can make a case that they are doing their jobs to vet a potential nominee for one of the highest positions in the cabinet. it's a bigger position than ambassador to the u.n. you can argue that the qualifications for the two are different. she has been in the spotlight, and i think it does her a disservice to say sheefs merely put out there to repeat talking points. this is someone who, as other panelists have said, has a long and distinguished career in diplomacy, and we should give her the credit to think for herself. for whatever reason in this meeting with the senators, they didn't feel like they got from her a satisfactory briefing, despite the invitation, the offer from susan rice to give them that and to help answer some of their questions. so i think this is going ongoing. it's political.

of course it is, but that's the senate's role in this. >> molly, i guess the point is. i hope i didn't articulate it that way. she was also not articulating her opinion. she was going by information provided to the white house, to her based on the -- as she articulated on "meet the press," the facts that they had at the time or at least that she had available to her. she was not to coin something sarah palin, the persona john mccain introduced us to, she was not going rouge to our knowledge. there's been no evidence of that. that she was going on her opinion. certainly at least on the "meet the press" interview, which is the one so many people have talked about. >> what i think we still doenlt know is a couple of things. number one, why there are discrepancies between certain talking points and certain other information that other people have said they had access to or made different determinations from. and then, of course, the broader questions that you were talking about in terms of what actually

happened and what the consequences were out there on the ground. and the political consequences of this, the lurking allegations basically that this was done in order to influence the election. i think we still don't know all of those things, and behind all the partisan furor about the different personalities here, that's what we're still trying to find out. >> michael, quickly because you talk to people all day, the average folks -- i hope to some degree we all remain average in the way we see things and are not clouded by what happens in washington through every story line. but what are people saying? is it something that's split with -- you've got folks on the right who have been chomping at this well before the election, and then you have the others on the left who feel they have to step up and defend the ambassador for whatever reason. many people believe because she's african-american, and others believe because she's a woman who is being attacked in some ways here. >> i would say that the interest is far more muted since the

election. this benghazi issue came to symbolize all bad things that some people had in her minds about the obama administration, and i find that it's dissipated since election day. still, the passionate opponents of the president trumpet this, but i don't think it's got much traction in middle america. >> thank you all. i really appreciate your time and your insight into this story. thank you. i really appreciate it. coming up, president obama's new fiscal cliff strategy revealed. the president taking a page from his campaign. he's trying to get the public on his side when it comes to extending the bush tax cuts for the middle class. do the exit polls show he has the public on his side? chris van hollen will join us live. plus, another day of deadly protests in cairo over egypt's president morsi's new sweeping powers that he is seeking. we'll get a live report. plus, the former head of

florida's republican party, he's making a stunning claim about the state's early voting law saying it was deliberately designed to suppress minority votes. it's just one of the things we thought you should know. join our conversation on twitter. you can find us at @tamronhall and at @newsnation. a winter wonderland doesn't just happen. it takes some doing. some coordinating. and a trip to the one place with the new ideas that help us pull it all together. from the things that hang and shine... ...to the things that sparkle and jingle. all while saving the things that go in our wallet. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get fresh cut savings. live trees are arriving weekly.

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welcome back. thousands of protestors are rallying for a sixth day in tahrir square and bigger protests for friday. they continue to demand na egypt's new president revoke the decree issued last thursday giving himself near absolute power.

another protestor died today in a clash with police. he's the third person killed since the weekend. jim maceda joins us live from cairo. again, the threat of an even larger protest as i mentioned jim on friday. >> reporter: that's right, tamron. first to touch on the fatalities that happened that you referred to when a 52-year-old protestor inhaled too much tear gas apparently during heavy clashes with police in an adjacent square from this square, which is close to the u.s. embassy, which, by the way, closed for business today. we just learned minutes ago there's another casualty, so that will make four since the weekend. this last one happening outside of cairo, and there were a number of protests in alexandria up up and down the nile river delta today in the north. this is definitely spreading. here in cairo, the protestors are more violent than usual, they were overturning cars and

set vehicles on fire. it calmed down once large crowds spilled in this aeng. the opposition is fractured from the start. it's a patchwork of leftists and lib rals and christians who have suddenly found a cause tole rally around. our guess is there's 100,000 egyptians outs here who have come to express their anger over the sweeping what they call dictatorial powers that president morsi has assumed he says to save the revolution. i'm monitoring the tweeting from the square below me. these people would beg to differ. they're telling morsi in the tweets this is the revolution you're looking at. it's not you, but us. it's you and not us threatening it. >> my producers were remarking the same thing. the visual you're on the ground there. this crowd looks exactly at least from our vantage point what we saw during the arab spring. >> reporter: you're absolutely right. the old revolution of the arab

spring. it was before they got involved. you see people singing songs, mixing that with chants of leave, leave, leave. remember that one? people want to bring the regime down. a veteran of the upridsing said she she not seen a mix like this. many, many women are veiled because there are islamists here, morsi's own people protesting against his decrees. back to you. >> all right, jim, thank you very much. greatly appreciate it. still aahead the challenge of getting to the number 218. if a fiscal cliff deal is to be done by the end of the year. why nbc's first read team says it's more of a struggle to get the new class of house republicans to sign on to higher tax raits for the wealthy. we'll break down that 218 for you. plus, chris christie speaking of another number. he gets his highest approval rating for a new jersey governor in the history of the quinnipiac

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something this delicious could only come from nature. new nectresse. the 100% natural no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. we want to show you video that came in a short time ago. video of ambassador susan rice leaving her meeting with senator joseph lieberman. earlier today she met with senators john mccain, kelly ayotte and lindsey graham. this meeting with senator lieberman approximately if it started on time, it was set to start around 2:00 eastern time. we got this video in. about a 20 minute or maybe less meeting. we'll hopefully have more insight in the latest meeting centering around the investigation of the deadly attack in the consulate in benghazi. in an hour president obama

meeting with mexico's president-elect at the white house to discuss border security, immigration and trade. we'll get a preview. a record powerball jackpot soars higher for tomorrow night's big drawing. we'll tell you how much it's worth now. it's a story around the "news nation" for you. check out the tumblr page. you find behind the scenes pictures. we have to update the picture, because today -- tomorrow they reveal the big tree. that scaffolding is no longer up. we'll take a new picture and have it updated for you in the break.

oh, let me guess --ou see this? more washington gridlock. no, it's worse -- look, our taxes are about to go up. not the taxes on our dividends though, right? that's a big part of our retirement. oh, no, it's dividends, too. the rate on our dividends would more than double. but we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills. we worked hard to save. well, the president and congress have got to work together to stop this dividend tax hike. before it's too late.

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pressure on republicans to support his plan. how speaker john boehner is pushing back. today his office released a statement saying the target of the president's rally should be the congressional democrats who want to raise tax rates on small businesses rather than cut spending. the white house in the meantime defends the public campaign and told chuck todd within the last hour it's doing all it can to strike a deal as soon as possible. >> isn't everybody just killing time until the deadline comes? >> no. it doesn't seem like killing time to me, chuck. >> it's the final week and the jet fumes and people get out of school and people will hammer it out? >> he has not waited for people to start smelling the jet fuels at a national airport. he's active ly put forward a plan. >> another issue, how to get to the 218 votes needed to get a deal through the house if both parties are claiming a mandate.

here's the challenge aaccording to our first read team. take a look. 205 house republican incumbents ran for re-election. 93% of them won. what's more, 117 of them won by getting at least 60% of the vote. in other words, house republicans were elected by a different electorate than the presidential and key senate contests. let me bring in nbc news deputy editor dominico. i thought that was a great explainer in first read, because that's what it boils down to, those numbers. >> the house is different than the senate. the house has to deal with primaries potentially from the right. the senate, they have to be elected statewide. if you drill down even further, 88% of all of those house members won with at least 55% of the vote. so in a 55% race, it's not that close. it's a 10-point race. you're looking at maybe 20, 23 people who are elected with less than 55% of the vote.

that's closer to what democrats are really trying to aim for. >> absolutely. let's talk a little bit about what speaker boehner was saying, his reaction to the president going out, p if you will, to the people on friday. i think it's a toy factory. they make among other things the angry bird game or something. it's interesting because presidential historian doris kerns good win says he needs it to use the people like with other great presidents in our history. >> when we heard him signal this during the campaign that he knows change doesn't come from inside washington, it comes from oulsd. i think that he signaled that early on during that fiscal cliff negotiation, if he were to get re-elected, he sees at least a little bit of leverage there, if not a mandate to be able to go and campaign outside to put pressure on house republicans who might be thinking about maybe signing onto something but not totally sure if they will. use some of that outside

pressure to try to sway them to be more open to compromise. >> all right. thank you. let me bring in maryland congressman, chris van hollen. thank you so much for your time. >> tamron, it's great to be with you. >> let me get your reaction to speaker boehner's words, and he said the target of the president's rally should be the congressional democrats who want to raise tax rates on small businesses rather than cut spending. your reaction, sir? >> look, the president is doing exactly the right thing. first of all, during the campaign he was crystal clear that if we take a balanced approach to reduce the long-term deficit, that requires a combination of cuts. it also means asking high income individuals to pay a little bit more. that was a key issue in the campaign. all the exit polls show the american people are on the president's side. the only people who appear to be totally deaf to that are some of the congressional leaders in the

republican house and senate. so i think it's important that the president get out and talk to the american people. this is part of the national conversation. this is a very important moment, and so it's important even as the president talks to congressional leaders and he had them down to the white house and continues to be in contact with them, he should engage the american public in this very important national conversation. >> let me ask you, you have a couple of senate republicans who have come out again grover norquist and any kind of notion of a pledge or being held to a lobbyist as opposed to the american people. on the left you have some progressives who are concerned that too many concessions will be made with social security, medicare entitlements. let me play what david plouffe recently said that caught the attention of some on the left, and they're concerned. >> i think what we need to do and the president believes this is let's go for the big deal. the only way that gets done is for republicans, again, to step

back and get mercilessly criticized by grover norquist on the right, and it means democrats have to do tough things on spending and entitlements that they get criticized by the left. >> before you respond to plouffe, let me play what congressman peter defazio said on "news nation" when he was our guest yesterday. >> i'm not going for a bad deal, and i think there's a quite a few for a bad deal. social security didn't cause the deficit. we don't need to cut social security to solve the problem. >> congressman defazio and a few others say let's go over the cliff if it means touching social security. what do you say? >> we should avoid going over the cliff, and the keys to the car are in the republicans' hands with respect to this tax issue. with respect to social security, i agree with what the president has said and what peter defazio said. social security is not part of the deficit and debt problem. we're not going to raid social security in order to balance other parts of the budget. as the president has said, you

can deal with social security and try to strengthien it on yor own terms. with respect to health care, what we've said is we opposed the republican approach, which is simply to transfer rising health care costs onto the backs of seniors. what we should do and can do is build on the affordable care act where we found savings within the health care system by changes the incentive structures, by modernizing the system. there are additional things you can do along those lines, but that's very different than the republican approach, tamron, which is simply to off-load those increasing health care costs onto the backs of seniors. that's not the right way to do it. the median income of a senior on medicare is $22,000. so that's why the president has called for a balanced approach. we did about a trillion dollars in cuts as part of the budget control act, and that needs to

be taken into account as we look at the overall deal. now it's time for republicans to really put revenue on the table. >> congressman chris van hollen, thank you for your time, sir. >> thank you. >> we're following developing news out of the white house where president obama is expected to host mexico's president-elect within the next hour. issues like trade, border security and immigration are scheduled to come up. it's skijed for a quick meeting. one expert says from the mexican side there's a real desire to rebalance the relationship. there's a perception and feeling that the security issues became the exiclusive focus. they want to make sure the economy and global aspects of the relations aren't lost. let me bring in chief washington correspondent, john harwood. a 15-minute meeting does that equate to a photo op perhaps? >> sure, it's a photo op. obviously, relation with mexico are extremely he important. the united states is the largest trading partner of mexico.

we've seen that immigrants from mexico played a critical role in american elections, and it's a good time to broaden that dialogue to economic issues. you know, the issues of immigration have faded somewhat because the rate of immigration has slowed because our economy has slowed. the drug violence and down somewhat, so it's an aus pishs time for the mexican president-elect and for president obama. he's juggling the fiscal cliff but you have to walk and chew gum at the same time at the white house. >> you have to walk and chew gum where lives are lost almost every day with this drug war that is ongoing in mexico and spilling into as we know parts of texas and other border states. >> exactly. the question is, how do you broaden out the relationship? what is the ways in which the

united states' economy and u.s. businesses deepen ties with mexico in ways that help both countries? it's not that long ago, tamron, when presidential candidate obama was criticizing the nafta trade deal, so was hillary clinton in that democratic primary. now that trade deal was never renegotiated, which is something that was raised during the primary campaign. how do you now move to deepen ties in ways that doesn't provoke a backlash here in the united states? it's a significant challenge. >> all right, john. thank you very much. great pleasure having you on. up next, investigators exhume i can't sayer arafat's body eight years after his death over suspicions he was poisoned. plus -- >> please stop watching. i'm on to "mad men." i don't want to be on. please stop watching it. please stop filling your head with filth. please. >> this is one of those buzz stories we have to talk about. this is the 19-year-old star of

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take place now? >> reporter: no t, tamron. his wife was given a medical report, which was never made public, and so there was speculation among palestinians in the west bank ever sign arafat died eight years ago, how did he die? the question became was he poivened? there was a report on al jazeera tv earlier this year that they did with twist technicians. they found traces of radioactive material on arafat's clothes, his hat and toothbrush his wife made available to al jazz ra. the palestinians were prompted by the tv report to really call for an investigation to invite spertss and they sampled his bones from his grave sent to those countries where the technicians there work on finding out how, in fact, he

died and solve this mystery which is absorbing palestinians for the last eight years. >> martin, it is interesting the measures that were taken including the experts from three different countries to ensure that whatever the results, perhaps it would minimize some of the suspicions that would certainly come after. >> reporter: well, that's absolutely right. i mean, you can imagine there's a lot riding on this. palestinians not only believe he was poisoned there's only one culprit, israel. if he was appointed and it was by israel, of course, who knows what the ramifications of that would be on the street. yeah, they want to make sure that the investigation is done as fairly and as objectively as possible. so what happened is they took 20 specimens from his bones today. those 20 specimens were divided into three, and each set of investigators from russia, france and switzerland took their 20 samples. they'll be doing separate investigations, and then they

correlate the results to the end and we'll see whether they will agree or whether there's any dispute. there's a lot riding on this, of course. >> martin fletcher live in tel aviv. thank you. new allegations involving former elmo puppeteer kevin clash. it tops our look at stories around the "news nation" today. a third lawsuit accuses clash of having sex with an underage boy. the latest accuser said he began a relationship with clash back in 2000. he was 16 years old at the time. a spokes woman for clash says, quote, mr. clash believes this lawsuit has no merit. a fast-moving storm is going across the mid-atlantic today. heavy rain, sleet and snow is hitting several stalts from west virginia to massachusetts. hundreds of car accidents have been reported throughout the region. many schools have closed. the powerball jackpot just got sweeter. the prize for tomorrow's drawing -- it's tomorrow? we have to get a ticket. it's now a record $500 million,

and it could get bigger. no wonder my team is talking about it. powerball sales have skyrocketed since there was no winner saturday. the odds of winning are 175 million to 1. if you're a "news nation" team member, we've got this one. the gut check up next. the teenage star of "two and a half men," well, he rips the show. his video has gone viral. he's on one of the most watched comedy on tv right no and calls it filth and tells viewers to stop watching. should he lose his job? you can join the "news nation" on facebook. we're at facebook.com/newsnation. have a good night. here you go. you, too. i'm going to dream about that steak. i'm going to dream about that tiramisu. what a night, huh? but, um, can the test drive be over now?

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you can join the "news nation" on twitter. you can find us at @newsnation. there's a lot going on today.

here's are things we thought you should know. the former head of florida's republican party claims new laws shortening early voting in the state were deliberately designed to suppress groups that tend to support democratic candidate. jim grier told the palm beach post, quote, the republican party, the strategists, the consultants firmly believe early voting is bad for republican party candidates. he served as the gop chairman from 2006 to 2010 when he was forced to resign after allegedly stealing money from the party. a new quinnipiac poll shows new jersey governor chris christie's aapproval rating has soared. look at that. 72%. that's the highest for any new jersey governor in the history of the quinnipiac poll. yesterday christie filed paperwork to run for re-election next year. after north korean dictator kim jong-un was named the se sexiest man alive by "the

onion," china's communist newspaper apparently didn't know it was a joke. today the peoples daily online site published the headline, north korea's top leader named the onion's sexiest man alive for 2012 along with a 55-picture slide show. those are the things we thought you should know. there are american journalists who thought the onion was real. time for the "news nation" gut check, the half in "two and a half men" was slamming his own show telling people not to watch it. he has played jake on the show for nearly ten years. he makes $350,000 an episode. he was at one point the highest paid child actor on television. in a new video shot in his production trailer and put online by a church, he calls the show filth. >> if you watch "two and a half men," please stop watching "two and a half men."

i'm on "two and a half men." i don't want to be on it. please stop watching it. please stop filling your head with filth. please. >> so cbs and warner bros. have not commented. his former co-star charlie sheen was fired from the show last year for what producers called moral turpitude. should he be fired or should he quit because he doesn't want to watch the show? go to facebook.com/newsnation. look at what the "news nation" is saying about yesterday's gut check. do you think gender neutral catalogs is a good idea? that does it for this edition of "news nation." thanks for hanging with us for the hour. "the cycle" is up next. treatmens when you can prevent the acid that's causing it with prevacid24hr. with one pill prevacid24hr works at the source to prevent the acid that causes frequent heartburn

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